PlanetSide 2 (2012)

Strategy

[PC] [PS4] PlanetSide 2

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[PC] [PS4] PlanetSide 2

Unread postby icycalm » 26 Sep 2014 20:59

Continued from here: http://culture.vg/forum/topic?p=24187#p24187

I wrote:On another note, I've got some basic ideas on platoon composition which I will outline here.

First off, I am the leader of the outfit and I'll play an Engineer. Generally, I will be with the assault group, but not on the actual frontline. I'll be hanging back with the troop carrier and other vehicles, repairing them when necessary, resupplying troops with ammo, etc., and poring over maps and picking waypoints and spawnpoints while everyone else fights the good fight.

Then, we'll have two squads as long as we are above 10 players: squad alpha headed by Qpo, and bravo headed by recoil. Second-in-command for each squad could be Masahiro for alpha and Somali Pirate ("taubleet" in the game) for beta, but we'll try other people too and see how it works out.

The squad leaders should probably play the Light Assault class, which is a scouting class that uses a jetpack and has therefore high mobility so as to always stay in charge of the situation.

The second-in-command could play the Heavy Assault class, and then we should also have at least one Medic in each squad (maybe two in the assault squad?), and the rest of the players could pick whatever they want to (there's still the Infiltrator and MAX classes which I haven't mentioned, but they seem hard to play effectively, so whoever picks them will need some practice).

Another useful thing would be if a couple of guys who are not playing a leading role could log into the game on their own and mess around with the planes until they become good at them, because they are really hard to use but could prove extremely useful. I imagine it would be really hard flying the planes right above the squads and providing support fire while avoiding getting lost or being shot down.

As for how the squads will operate, we will have two main methods of operation. In the one method we will use a leapfrog tactic in which one squad will hold the current base while the other advances on the next one, and when that is captured the defending squad will lead the next assault while the previously offensive squad will hold the base they just captured, and so on. That will be our bread and butter tactic, but when the enemy is not actively harassing our bases we'll go for the blitzkrieg method, by attacking a single base from two sides simultaneously, or, when the opposition is weak and we're feeling lucky, by sending each squad to attack a separate, but adjacent, base simultaneously.

That's all I have for now, I'll start a thread in the Strategy forum where we can discuss tactics. I just wanted to make this post here to give an idea to potential recruits of how awesome the game is.
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Unread postby icycalm » 27 Sep 2014 16:56

I think our tactic of avoiding the main conflict areas and capturing as many undefended bases as we can is a sound one, not only from the perspective of our individual enjoyment, but also in the sense that it's the most effective way for us to contribute to the general war effort, because:

1. It helps us stock up on resources, or whatever it is those credits are that the game gives you to resupply your characters and buy vehicles with when you successfully complete tasks (assuming you are awarded resources when you capture bases, which I am sure you are)

and

2. It eventually draws the attention of the enemy, who sends forces to recapture them and therefore has to withdraw them from the main conflict areas.

All we need to do is level up and customize our characters effectively, and learn to hold the bases we have captured as best and as long as we can with the number of people we have for any given session. The larger our army, and the better equipped and more effectively co-ordinated it is, the more we can achieve (or at least aim to achieve) with it inside the gameworld, and the more fun we will have as a result. This is the game in a nutshell, as far as I can tell so far.
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Unread postby icycalm » 27 Sep 2014 20:29

I am toying with the idea of an all-Medic squad for base infiltration. If they stick together they'll be unbeatable, and they won't even need to take a Sunderer with them.
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Unread postby ChevRage » 29 Sep 2014 15:27

For those who want to try before they buy, if you head over to the VR Training Facility (located via the continent warp menu) you can try out all of the weapons and maxxed out abilities of each class and vehicle for free. There are a bunch of stationary targets, both infantry and vehicle, there for you to shoot at as well. This might help make it easier for some people to decide which guns, attachments and upgrades they want to aim for by feel without having to just compare stats from the menu.

Take note however that you can't actually LOWER your abilities from the maximum level attainable, and that might influence the impression you get from the loadout you are trying.
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Unread postby recoil » 30 Sep 2014 02:18

Reflecting on the last sessions, I've noticed the flow of how we should attack and defend. When attacking, first we need to get as many spawn points set up as possible, whether they be Sunderers or spawn beacons. This should buy us time to set up a proper mobile base as enemies will be too busy looking for them all. While this is happening, armor and air should be providing cover fire by taking out targets in this order: vehicles, vehicle terminals, and then infantry. Once our presence is secure, we should be moving on each capture point, while fire teams keep pressure on enemy spawn points.

As for defending, the priority should be: enemy spawn points, armor and air, and infantry. The control points should be top priority when they are close to being taken.

Of course, this is just an outline of what should happen, the platoon leader needs to set up the strategy based on the base layouts and enemy counts. While the squad leaders are responsible for adjusting the tactics of the strategy when necessary (e.g. when Rambo starts fucking up entire squads or when priorities suddenly change).
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Unread postby recoil » 30 Sep 2014 07:58

Just made another discovery on control points, once you have changed the color on the control point, you don't have to babysit it afterwards and can move freely away from it. We've gotten into the habit of watching it closely, so with this in mind, we can set up better perimeters around the control point and take care of higher priority targets once we've captured a control point.
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Unread postby Somali Pirate » 30 Sep 2014 09:54

Yes, once we captured a base, the enemy can't spawn there anymore, so then we'd have to scout around for their Sunderers, and if they got spawn points near by. And then hop into our own and set up a spawn point near their base (preferably a bit hidden), and then attack their new base, keeping a steady pressure on them.
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Unread postby icycalm » 30 Sep 2014 16:55

I think SP is right. And we should also try to shoot enemies when we see them and try to avoid their shots when they are firing at us.
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Unread postby jeffrobot494 » 04 Oct 2014 07:39

Some things I've learned as a non-Heavy class fighting Heavies.

1. It's a bad idea to engage them in a fair fight, so flank them. If you surprise them by coming from behind them, you can kill them before they put their shields up.

These are ideas I just thought of that I haven't tried yet:

2. Their guns (at least their starter guns) take a long time to reload. If you can get them to reload by pretending to disengage/run away, you might be able to pop back out and catch them while they are reloading.

3. Their shields recharge very slowly. If you can whittle their shield down and pop it, they are just as fragile as you for probably ten or twenty seconds.

4. They move 25% slower with their shields on. I bet there are ways to capitalize on that. For example, they like to turn their shields off when they are running. So if you disappear and they start to run after you, chances are they will turn their shield off.
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Unread postby Qpo » 25 Mar 2017 17:16

[I wrote this like an article and actually posted it as a new PlanetSide 2 strategy thread. Then I caught myself and moved it here. If I seem weird or overly blunt by not directly addressing the previous posts and continuing the trains of thought from them, this is why. Instead of rewriting I am adding this header.]


I hate dying too. So much that I feel like I can never show it to anyone. In the strategy thread for Left 4 Dead [ > ] I talk about playing for objectives:

I wrote:List of priorities in order of importance:

1. Complete the objective
2. Move towards completing the objective
3. Stay alive
4. Kill enemies

So you're only killing enemies to stay alive so you can move towards completing the objective so you can complete the objective, i.e. reach the end of the level. To go out of your way to kill zombies when it isn't needed merely wastes ammo and puts you at unnecessary risk. Whatever stats the game records and shows at the end of each level doesn't really matter, what really does matter is NOT LOSING HEALTH while moving forward. (The CPU is the enemy: the stats it shows is merely intended to sow discord within the group to allow his zombie children to eat us more easily.)

That said, it is of course fun to shoot zombies, but each kill will taste better if there's a purpose behind it, i.e. when you're playing "seriously". So I go in with the mindset of playing only for the objective, and then want to be forced by the game to kill stuff on the way of getting there. Which is exactly the case most of the time. My point is that if there's ever a chance to advance most effectively by avoiding a fight, then do so, if only to make all the other kills taste better.


This attitude came about after such endless slaughter that a random kill was left completely tasteless for me. You could call it "a refined taste in virtual murder". But it can probably be used well before it is needed, and the pleasant secondary effects is that you start to focus on, and get an increased enjoyment out of, teamplay and communication. When you share a goal, you share victory and defeat. "Twice the joy, half the pain", and so forth. It really makes dying suck less since you're not playing for the individual score anyway. And stressing an objective seems to, somehow, lead to easier kills. It's as if the god of war looks down in approval: "Good warfare. Have some snacks." But, to be honest, it is probably hard to adopt before you've got a foothold on your own. Nobody wants to be cannon fodder, and nobody should be -- of us, that is.

List of priorities:
1. Get a foothold as an individual
2. Get a foothold as a group

I am pulling a lot of this from deep within my guts, and to discover (make up?) the detailed reasoning behind what has been instinct and viewed as obvious is part of my pleasure in doing it. But it gets lengthy and takes time. So I will just say what is best -- or at least good enough to start from -- and then provide whatever reasoning doesn't flow out naturally later, as needed. (The reasoning is worth more than the conclusions, after all.) Without further ado...



Heavy assault is the best class. In 1v1 there are three scenarios:
- Head-on encounter
- You flank him
- He flanks you

Taking MAXes out of the equation, the heavy assault beats all other classes IN ALL THREE SCENARIOS. That's right: even you getting flanked. You just pop the shield, turn around, blast their face. A free frag. From a situation where he outsmarted you. Brute force matters. Early on I was checking out all the classes -- then this happened to me a few times and I've barely acknowledged their existence since. I bound the shield to F and in time coded my reflexes to activate it at the same time or even before I start shooting back.

The heavy assault can fight armor and air effectively. The "Grounder" missile launcher allows you to fend off light air on your own, and with assistance quickly take them down. A few missile launchers can with focused fire take out a tank in no time. Using missiles on infantry is allowed, too. Add C4 and anti-armor grenades and you can massively damage a sunderer on your own. The C4 takes out a MAX in a single hit: get aggro, run around a corner, drop it, keep running, sharpen your ears for his terminator-esque footsteps, pop.

Landing and avoiding flank attacks is the realm of tactics. This largely comes down to the player. In head-on situations, the avatar is doing some serious heavy lifting. Specialize your avatar to deal with this situation. Pick weapon for the range you will be fighting at. Someone at long range can, and often should just be ignored, so start with a short-to-medium perspective. You need max damage output with max armor. It is not cheap to be stronger. It is good. There's no coincidence in me and The Hanged Man both picking the exact same loadout independently of each other.

If you can get one kill before you die more often than not, you are doing great. That is the only thing anyone can ever ask or hope for. It's what I was aiming for when I decided on heavy assault. Anything beyond that is heroics. Dying against a heavy assault is perfectly normal, and going on a kill streak usually just means you had the good fortune of not meeting any heavy assaults for a while. Then there are always players with better aim, reflexes, computer and ping, and those we will kill together, like any other boss monster.



Is the best unit composition a unit of only heavy assaults? Kind of. But it depends. On what? Unit size and distance from a respawn point. The second class to add to a group is a medic. The larger the group, the less of a sacrifice it is in raw power to change a heavy assault to a medic. In a 1v1, you're dead against a heavy assault. In a 12v12, if you can't win with 11 heavy assaults, you'll almost never win with 12 either. With respawning, dying means being put out of combat for a certain amount of time. That time is "respawn time + running back to the fight time". It is this time the medic saves. The further from a respawn point, the more valuable a medic is. If you're hit with an enemy wave every 20 seconds and anyone who died can make it back to the front before the next wave hits, a medic is pointless.

A medic is good only because this game is not played with isolated fights. Without a medic you can only expect to win one group vs. group fight. With a medic you can restore the group after you win the fight, keep winning, and in this way "juggle" incoming groups of respawning enemies, effectively handling many times your own numbers. But only if you win the fight. Don't get carried away. With a squad of 12 you can and should have 1 medic. Maybe 2. But at 3 I get uncomfortable. Trading too much "short term power" for "long term power" means you die early. The first medic brings "restoring the squad" from IMPOSSIBLE to POSSIBLE. Then they matter less and less.

The medic should be the last to die and reviving in the middle of a fight is a bad idea. If you've pushed them back or cleared them out, sure, but that means exactly that the fight isn't at the wounded anymore. (Note that long range pussyfooting hardly constitutes a fight.) Killing comes first, healing comes later. Also for the combat medic himself. Strictly playing medic "100% serious" might be boring, and closer to a respawn point it is not as important. On deep strike missions, with no respawn at all, the medic will naturally enjoy his role more and be more cautious.

With two squads of 6, the starting point is thus 5 heavy assaults and 1 medic each. Is it fun to only stick to these two classes? Not in the long term, but neither is dying a lot. It is a good starting point and something to fall back to if things get rough. A basic, brute force standard plan.

After heavy assault and medics, I am not sure. With squads of 6, I think 4 heavy assaults, 1 medic and 1 other can be effective. It doesn't even feel that risky. But going all the way down to only 50% heavy assaults is practically out of the question. Even lower is utter suicide. The guideline for judging if a unit composition is at all viable is if it could win against the same number of only heavy assaults. You have to win the first fight first.

Unit composition template for a squad of six:
1. Heavy assault
2. Heavy assault
3. Heavy assault
4. Heavy assault
5. Medic
6. ???

The minimum amount of heavy assaults needed to keep a medic alive is probably 2 or 3, for a "smallest effective unit" size of 3 or 4. If you add another medic in the open slot above, you can quickly split the squad of 6 into two teams of 3, useful in bases with multiple capture points. The other classes have strengths too, believe it or not, but I am not too familiar with them, so I'd just pick another heavy assault in the open slot for now.

The above on unit composition has the goal of capturing and holding the primary objective. If you can't do that, nothing else matters, so the first squad has to focus on that. What comes after is measured by how well it helps support that. The second squad should be the first to replace their 5th heavy assault with another "officer" class.



Primary points of interest in every fight:
- Defensive respawn
- Capture point
- Offensive respawn

Defensive respawns are indestructible and offensive respawns are destructible, giving a defenders' advantage. The attackers are after the capture point and the defenders are after the offensive respawn. Usually the only "loose" variable is the placement of the offensive respawn. Sunderers are destroyed much quicker than points are captured, so the attackers can't "base trade" objectives, and in effect have to first focus on defending the sunderer. This makes it ideal to place a sunderer so that the capture point is right between it and the defensive respawn. That way the attackers automatically defend their respawn as they push into the capture point.

Code: Select all
                                     Defensive respawn
                                             |
                                             |
                                       Capture point
                                             |
                                             |
                                     Offensive respawn   


With a 1v1, the attacker can easily avoid the defender and get to the capture point. The battlefield will not have a clearly formed frontline. This is to the attacker's advantage. As numbers increase, expect a more and more rigid frontline to form exactly at the mid-way point between opposing respawns. This is to the defender's advantage. Lower equal numbers favor attack, higher equal numbers favor defense. More space, more movement.

The stretch from respawn to frontline is the supply line and what matters here is moving fast to the front. As you approach the front you have to become more careful. Expect contact. Anything beyond the front means you're in enemy territory. Stay frosty. Even if there's no actual front formed, or it has been pushed away from the mid-way point, always keep these distances in mind.

The longer you've been alive, the more time has been invested in your position, the more "expensive" it is, and has to pay off. If you circle around the objective to the left, on the wide left flank, reaching the hostile supply line to net a single kill isn't worth it. If you harass 20 hostiles and make them waste 10 seconds each, keeping them off the front without necessarily netting a single kill, you are the hero that almost single-handedly won the battle. The stats saying otherwise is exactly why they are of so little worth.

The brute force approach is to rush straight up the center line to the objective. Pushing forward should be done as a group. Scouting ahead is useful when done properly, meaning without dying, but there's no reason to look for a fight outnumbered. Nothing is easier than handling a single opponent at a time. If you WILL die by holding the front, better options are falling back to regroup with reinforcements, or finding a position to harass the enemy and assist the reinforcements from.

For a single squad of 6, a formation of pushing forward would be putting 2 heavy assaults up front, 1 slightly behind the center to the left, 1 slightly behind the center to the right, and the medic and whoever else in the middle, behind the wall of heavy assaults. Only if you are cut off from reinforcements should you have to worry about the rear. The main point is that heavy assaults should always be the first to make contact and draw fire.

For two squads of 6, one squad can take the close left flank, the other the close right flank, and both can move their "inner flank guard" to the outside instead, basically forming a single, larger wedge. Note that these are broad strokes and if there's cover you should use it. If you can dash forward to get a flank kill on an enemy pinning a friendly, preferably without dying yourself, you should, and so forth. Always adjust for terrain and the situation you're actually in. Keep in mind that if you die in a position your squad can't lock down, the medic won't be able to revive you.

Buildings or rooms with capture points often have many entrances. Both doorways and windows. Sitting inside of it and trying to hold all of them is practically impossible. Wherever you sit and wherever you look there's at least one way to flank you. This is in the favor of attackers and good design. Often it is better to have someone outside the room on e.g. the east side, effectively covering, or at least scouting all eastern entrances.

After taking the objective there are two approaches. You either hold the objective at the objective or keep pushing towards the hostile respawn. Holding at the objective means you need to kill less, as it takes longer for them to rejoin the fight. This has better potential for "juggling" different groups of enemies. Pushing to the respawn makes for a "narrower" frontline, making it much harder for the enemy to sneak past your troops and potentially get to the sunderer. If you push to the respawn and die, you can almost make it to the capture point in the same time as a defender, effectively having played "2v1" against him on your own. In sum you should probably push forward as much as you can without getting wiped out.

It's also good to push forward and then fall back, moving the front back and forth, to surprise the enemy for easy kills, making them more cautious and slower to reinforce their front. By pulling back you then capitalize on their caution, having them sneak where they should be running, to which they respond with renewed aggression, to which you respond with again pushing forward to catch them off guard. This way you can surprise them over and over. Against respawning opponents that knows exactly where you were standing when you killed them, this is almost a necessity. It doesn't have to be back and forth, but try to find another box to hide behind before he rejoins the fight or chances are you will eat a grenade.



Above I outline going fully on the attack with two squads of 6, which assumes that no-one will join the battle from any other place than the defensive respawn inside the base, and that you clear out all enemies as you move forward. That seems most likely to be the case in a bio dome. In reality you get attacked from everywhere and do leak hostiles through your frontline as you push forward, especially outdoors. There can also be multiple mobile respawns on both sides, and so forth, but for the sake of underlying principles over excessive examples, I leave it on the side (a basic understanding of vector algebra comes in handy here).

I also have only talked about the state of us being locked in combat. Not the entry phase or exit phase of combat -- with the exit phase in this game awesomely being "immediately transition to the next entry phase", but still a phase of its own.

Neither have I talked about "teamplay", which is the word I most often use for what is essentially "micro-level tactics", which start as soon as you are a pair. Tactics aren't magic however, "clean" kills where you don't lose a single HP and securing that a "rebound" kill always happen or not, and the best way I can put it is that they amplify your brute force, so you still need that first.

I haven't touched upon communication, which is vastly different here than in e.g. Planetary Annihilation, since here the in-game sound is such a heavy part of the mechanics. You could play PA without sound but in PS2 it's impossible, which is why I allow myself some background music in the former but absolutely not in the latter. We started on this subject when we first got voice servers and maybe it's even a different discussion altogether.

This could drag on, is my point. I think the two original goals have been fulfilled, and with no end in sight I have to cut myself off somewhere.

Other areas include armor and air, and we've started working on our "caravan composition" while playing, together with attacking multiple bases at once. In an earlier post recoil started the discussion on attack priorities. "Shock troops" to shake up rigid frontlines would be handy, bringing us to MAX-based squads, and the superior mobility of light assaults might also prove useful here.



Before the summary, I'll zoom out a little and give a rough blueprint of an army of two squads of 6, over the entry phase and locked-in-combat phase, that's a little more nuanced than the "all-in, all the time, full assault infantry to the last" I've been proposing so far. It is based on us playing together and the following reasoning:

"Taking the capture point is done by heavy assaults. Holding it is done by heavy assaults with a medic. We also need to keep the sunderer alive. And possibly harass the enemy supply line for a potentially large impact on the fight at the objective for a low cost. These are the activities related to the primary points of interest."


-- Composition --

Alpha Squad (Assault):
1. Heavy assault
2. Heavy assault
3. Heavy assault
4. Heavy assault
5. Heavy assault
6. Medic

Vehicles:
- Flashes / Harassers / Fast air transport


Bravo Squad (Tactical Support):
Team 1
1. Engineer
2. Tank / MAX
3. Tank / MAX

Team 2
4. Heavy assault / Infiltrator / Light assault
5. Heavy assault / Infiltrator / Light assault
6. Heavy assault / Infiltrator / Light assault / Medic

Vehicles:
- Sunderers / Tanks


-- Execution --

Alpha takes and holds objectives. Given a target they pick the fastest means of transportation possible and immediately dive straight at the objective, with the goal of holding it without having the squad wiped even once. Locks down defensive respawns when possible, takes secondary objectives when there's room for it.

Bravo team 1 drives in a caravan of a sunderer and two tanks. Team 2 either man turrets in those vehicles -- which should be upgraded to whatever is most effective against air -- or bring more. The best classes while manning armor is engineer and heavy assault. Note that someone not driving has the best opportunity to study the map for good sunderer placement.

At the site, the sunderer is deployed. Team 1's priority is defending it, watching for hostile armor and air as Alpha is drawing most hostile infantry. If there's room for it, the tanks should be used as mobile artillery (shoutout to Gustavus Adolphus) to target hostile supply lines (shoutout to the Wehrmacht). In some bases you can't find an angle to do so with a tank, but in some you can. Simply putting shells there is stressful so even if you don't get kills, it's good. Try to have an unpredictable rythm to it and don't burn all ammo. If a tank breaks or runs out of ammo, the driver returns to full defensive duty and switch to a MAX, the heaviest loadout readily available, which also combos well with an engineer.

Bravo team 2 helps set up the base, clearing out any immediate threats. Then switch to the sneakier classes and target secondary objectives, like vehicle stations, harassing supply lines, and so forth. Not sure which ones or in what order.

Just like the medic has the best overview in Alpha squad, the engineer in Bravo has the best overall view of the battle. Alpha members that respawn will on their way back to the front help clear out infantry that slipped by it, but it might still be needed to call back Bravo team 2, and even parts of Alpha to clear out threats to the sunderer. This judgement call is on Bravo team 1, making them the de facto command group.


-- Comments --

If in practice this doesn't work out, the first measure is to switch Bravo team 2 to heavy assaults for more brute force. They can always do that if they feel like the situation calls for it. They are basically the "flexible veteran team" with the most "freedom", where each member can act on his own. But that also means that they are counted upon to always be in the right place at the right time with the right loadout. (Or, toning down the seriousness a little bit, a useful place most of the time with a decent loadout.) You can't expect one player to have fully unlocked four classes yet though, so maybe some rotation is needed. It might be good to send one of them ahead on a flash as an infiltrator to scout out a base for sunderer placement (spots with a roofs are usually good) and disable vehicle shields or something. Maybe that's actually a nice way to transition into attacking the next base. Not sure though.

A problem for Bravo is that going MAX several times in a row can mean you run out of resources. Not sure what to do about that. You could switch people back and forth between team 1 and team 2 as resources demand. Maybe someone in team 2 can capture a hostile vehicle platform and get a tank for team 1.

With a few more people, I'd try to keep the internal class ratios of the squads and teams, and start with beefing up Alpha. If a third squad of 6 was added, I'd make them another straight up Assault squad and turn Bravo team 2 more defensive, probably having them copy team 1's setup and place another base, to allow Charlie to attack from another direction. With that same setup Alpha and Charlie could go for different bases, supported by a Bravo team each, but it might be better to keep units on stand-by and reinforce as needed instead.



Summary of key basic points:

1. Play heavy assault. Use shield, get kills. Unlock the "Grounder" missle launcher and C4 to effectively fight all targets in the game.

2. A basic attack squad need its bulk to be heavy assaults. Then add a medic. Then something else... maybe.

3. Try to place the sunderer so that the capture point is between it and the defending spawn.

4. Take objective, stay alive at objective, keep sunderer alive, pressure defending respawns to constrain enemy movement.



Summary of army compositions for two squads of 6 each:

- Indoors:
Assault squad (approach unspecified)
Assault squad (approach unspecified)

- Outdoors:
Assault squad (fast and hard insertion)
Tactical Support squad (sundrer caravan)



P.S.

Something that survived from the draft version:

"A MAX is stronger in a head-on fight than a heavy assault, but with their cost you can't always be one, making a composition based around them "situational", i.e. a special tactic. Or at the very least not the first thing you want to focus on, as then when you can't use them you're crippled. And they can't capture the main objectives. They are also slower, meaning there's a bigger investment of time in getting you to the front. So if the objective is far enough from the respawn point, where a heavy assault would have to kill an enemy once before reaching it, a MAX might have to fight him more than once on his way there as he keeps respawning and running at you.

The other classes are weaker than a heavy assault in a head-on fight. If they were faster, you could argue as in the previous paragraph that they would be stronger in some situations, but they are not. So they are just weaker. The one exception here is the light assault which has higher mobility, so depending on terrain they are indeed faster to reach the fight. I think it's safe to assume there's always some shortcut for them to take.

Categorizing the classes looks like this:

HEAVY
- MAX

MEDIUM
- Heavy assault
- Medic
- Engineer
- Infiltrator

LIGHT
- Light assault"

The "officer" classes then would be medic, engineer and infiltrator. But the infiltrator is probably best behind enemy lines, leaving just medic and engineer. Light assaults might have a place in an assault squad.
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